Kissing Frogs
by Vixen Argentum
Summary: In feudal Japan, fairy tales are serious business. Rin takes one a little bit too literally. General, humor, and definitely WAFFY. Lots of Rin cuteness. Sess/Rin ideology, but more of just an innocent crush. OneShot.


_In feudal Japan, fairy tales are serious business. Rin takes one a little bit too literally. General, humor, and definitely WAFFY. Hints of a Sess/Rin future. Lots of Rin cuteness. Perhaps a bit silly. Fine. More than a bit. _

_I'm aware that the original fairy tale of the Frog Prince has no kissing in it, and that any stories collected by the brothers Grimm would probably not be known to those living in feudal Japan. (The feudal era/warring states period of Japan is 1467-1615, while the Grimm brothers didn't start working on the fairy tale collections until 1807)._

_Just go with it.  
_

_Rated K because it's just that fluffy. Read and Review.  
_

_A/N: This was just a random idea I had. Sorry if my style is a bit rusty. It's been about two years since I've written anything besides my thesis. _ _

_It's good to be back.  
_

* * *

KISSING FROGS

Rin turned the oversized pages with the utmost care, keeping the illustrations moving in time with Kagome's storytelling. The book itself, filled with fairy tales, was far older than Kagome. Grey hand prints from more than just a few generations had been worn into the black leather cover. Even after all these years, the binding was still sturdy enough to be handled by a child's carefree hands.

It had once been Kagome's favorite book, but she was more than happy to give it a new home. Rin probably didn't get things like this often. Especially since Kagome had a very hard time imagining Sesshoumaru with a picture book.

Rin listed as Kagome narrated her favorite tale.

"...and so the princess took the frog into her hand," the older girl read. "She closed her eyes, hoping with all her might and gave him a kiss."

Rin twisted up her nose. "Really? She kissed the frog? Ewww , that's gross!"

Kagome smiled at the girl's rather theatrical reactions. She continued. "When she opened her eyes again, there was no longer a frog. Instead, a handsome young prince was holding her hand."

Rin looked at the illustrations wide-eyed, her mouth frozen into a half open 'oh'. The prince in the picture was just so pretty, nothing like the ugly frog he used to be.

"He said to the girl, 'Thank you for breaking the old witch's spell. Now that I am free of the curse, will you marry me?' 'Yes, of course,' the girl replied. The prince took her into his arms and kissed her again and again. They knew then that they had both found true love. And with that, the two were married in the palace and together lived happily ever after."

"And that's enough for today." Kagome shut the book. "So, what did you think?" she asked curiously.

"Jaken-sama has told me a lot of stories" said Rin, "but he's never told anything like that one before."

"I'm glad that you liked it," Kagome chuckled. "My mother gave this book of fairy tales to me when I was about your age. The stories in here are from all over the world."

Rin thought about it for a moment. "Kagome, do you think frogs really can be princes?" she questioned.

"Of course," Kagome chirped. She was in the feudal era, where the supernatural elements seemed to exist with a much higher frequency than modern times. But in the figurative sense, it was definitely true. "You know, one day Rin, you'll find your prince too, just like she did. And you'll probably kiss some frogs along the way"

Kagome smiled and patted the child on her head. "I know I had to kiss a couple frogs before I found my prince--though sometimes, he definitely still acts like a frog. "

Kagome pulled Rin closer and tickled the girl. "Just don't tell him I said that. Inuyasha takes enough offence to the dog jokes. Who knows what he'd say about frog jokes."

Squirming like a snake, Rin giggled and tried to push away the fingers. "I won't, I won't! Stop, it tickles!"

Truthfully, Rin was a bit shocked at what Kagome had just told her. First of all, Inuyasha had been a frog? When? She knew he had been sealed to a tree for a while. But if Kagome had found him as a frog, sometime after being stuck to the tree, he must have been cursed just like the prince in the story. Boy did he have bad luck! And more than that, Rin was going to have to kiss frogs to find a prince too. This was completely unexpected.

Poor Kagome! Rin imagined how slimy and sticky it would have been to kiss an amphibian. She knew that Sesshoumaru could turn into a dog, but that was a lot different. She was quite sure that nobody had to kiss him to make him change back. And dogs were much better than frogs. Rin sighed. What would Sesshoumaru think if he knew his brother used to be a frog? Well, maybe she already knew the answer to that.

A menagerie of items falling to the ground could be heard outside.

"Kagome, I'm hungry! I thought you went back to your world for the cup ramen, but I can't find even one stinkin' cup!" Inuyasha had taken everything out of Kagome's backpack and was now proceeding to stick his head inside the bag, sniffing loudly.

"See what I mean?" Said Kagome. She patted Rin on the head. "We really should get going. Have fun staying with Kaede until Sesshoumaru gets back."

"Ok! Bye Kagome!" She waved and smiled as brightly as she could.

With a "They're in the front pocket! Honestly, you don't even try to look!", a "Well how the hell was I supposed to know that! I'm not psychic you know", and an "Osuwari!" Kagome and Inuyasha eventually left Kaede's hut.

Rin kept thinking long and hard about the story. Sure, it was gross to kiss frogs, but what if one of them really _was_ a poor prince stuck in a frog body? Or even just a boy like Inuyasha had been? She was certain that most people would never kiss a frog, let alone a _talking_ one. She thought that most people would find that scary.

Rin balled her hands into fists. She was determined. If nobody else was going to turn those frogs back into men, she would just have to do it herself. Then, she would have all the princes in the world to play with when Sesshoumaru was gone on conquest. Maybe if she found the witch, she could get her to turn Sesshoumaru into a frog, and then after kissing him and changing him back, he would stay with her forever and ever out of gratitude.

She liked that idea. The more she thought about it, the better the idea became.

xXx

Rin trailed Sesshoumaru and Jaken, pulling Ah-Un behind her. Sometimes she would swing the reins and make them jingle when she was bored, but Jaken didn't like that very much and would yell at her to 'stop it at once'.

Then again, Jaken didn't like a lot of things very much.

A pond appeared to the side of the trail. Rin felt her heart start to pound with excitement. There were always frogs in ponds!

"Sesshoumaru-sama! Can I stop for a second? Please!" Rin asked brightly.

"Oh for heaven's sake, Rin," whined Jaken. "We just stopped so that you could go to the bathroom five minutes ago. And not long before that to let you eat! Whatever do you need to stop for!?"

Rin didn't want to talk about her secret plan, but telling them a little bit wouldn't hurt.

"I wanna see if there's frogs in the pond!" She said sheepishly.

"Oh brother," mumbled Jaken. He cleared his throat. "Sesshoumaru-sama does not have time to stop so that you can look for frogs. Now be quiet and let's get moving!"

"Jaken." The deep voice of the inu youkai was both gentle and condescending at the same time.

"My lord?" Jaken looked at Sesshoumaru, very confused as to why his master _continuously_ yielded to the human child's wants, needs, and whims.

Sesshoumaru gave a single nod to Rin and she bounded into the underbrush, full of smiles. Maybe Sesshoumaru understood why she needed to go see if the frogs were there. After all, Rin knew he was smart about those kinds of things.

In the pond she did find a single frog, and so she picked it up and kissed it on the top of its head.

_Ribbit_ said the frog. This was definitely not human speech.

_Maybe that wasn't the right spot_, thought Rin. She kissed the frog again on its back, on a foot, and on its belly. To her dismay, nothing happened. Instead, the very bewildered frog twisted this way and that--wrenching itself out of her hands and back into the pond with a loud plop.

Oh well. She didn't know how common this frog-prince thing was, anyway. But Kagome said she only had to kiss a few...

"All done!" Rin exclaimed as she ran back to the group.

Sesshoumaru started walking again.

"Come on, Rin. Let's get moving," Jaken goaded. "I don't know what you were doing, but I am sure that Sesshoumaru-sama will not let it happen again."

This time she hopped on Ah-Un. Being up higher meant she could see further into the forests--she might even find _more_ ponds that way.

xXx

"Sesshoumaru-sama!"

"Rin! You can't be serious!"

"Jaken."

This conversation was getting to be a very common one between the three of them today.

Jaken pounded the bottom of the staff of two heads against the ground in a slight temper tantrum. "My Lord! I humbly beg your pardon, but this is the twelfth time we've stopped in an hour!" More miscellaneous grumbles could be heard under breath.

The youkai just looked at him blankly, in the same way that a scientist stares at a pinned specimen. Jaken hated that look. It usually preceded violence of some kind, and that was something that he definitely did not want to happen. He gulped.

"I'm sorry, sorry, sorry! I didn't doubt you, sir. Definitely not. I'm always trying to do things in your best interest. I'm just surprised, is all." Jaken stood straight and held his tongue.

Sesshoumaru nodded again at Rin, signaling that she was free to run her errand. He wasn't really in any hurry and it was slightly amusing to the Lord of the West how flustered Jaken had become over the whole situation.

Rin rushed to the pond that she had just spotted, as it was the biggest one yet. What luck! This one had _five_ frogs! After kissing them all and determining that none of them had a former human status, she put them all back in the water. This was a lot harder than she thought it was going to be. But then again, if she didn't do it, who would?

She crawled back through the underbrush and took Ah-Un's reins from Jaken. He clucked his tongue.

"Honestly Rin, what in the world have you been doing?" he asked her.

Jaken looked quite exasperated at the moment. Rin felt a little guilty; she didn't like to bother others, even if it was just Jaken. Perhaps she would tell him a little bit more. After all, even Sesshoumaru seemed to recognize that what she was doing was important.

"Can you keep a secret, Jaken-sama?" Rin's voice was quiet.

"Of course I can. I wouldn't be Sesshoumaru's vassal if I wasn't able to be trusted." The green demon puffed out his chest. "What is it?"

"I'm looking for princes!" she whispered.

"What?" squawked Jaken. He slapped his thigh and cackled. "You and every other female in the world! Some girls just have this 'knight in shining armor' complex. It's sad, really. Some of them just waste away, waiting for something that they can't find."

Every other female in the world? Rin had no idea that this frog kissing was so popular!

"Don't be foolish." He mulled the thought over. Wasn't she still too young for a human to be worried about that kind of thing? Perhaps somebody else put the idea in her head, after all she had been spending time in the village with that air-headed Kagome woman. Gah! He couldn't stand her.

"Even I was once a real prince, you know. It's not all it's cracked up to be," said Jaken. "I had a kingdom, and my fair share of princesses, and all of the finest things."

"Wow! Really?" Rin was amazed. She had never known about that!

"Of course. Why would I lie about that?" He continued, "When Sesshoumaru-sama saved my kingdom from that awful demon, as well as my own life, I gave it all up just to serve him. I owe him everything I have." The kappa's eyes glazed over in fond remembrance.

"Oh, okay." Rin looked at him bemusedly before climbing back on the dragon.

She had learned a lot today. But, that was to be expected after all. Jaken was very, very old and knew a lot of stuff that Rin wasn't sure she could even try to understand. Not that she cared.

With that the group of three continued down the road together.

xXx

Further ahead Rin saw another pond, but she was too tired to run over to it. If other girls did this too, perhaps it was ok that she didn't go. It was a little muddy anyway. She was sure that a frog prince would _at_ _least_ prefer a pond with clear water. In fact, she was quite certain of it.

She stared at Sesshoumaru in front of her and really wanted to curl up with him in his fluffy thing, but she knew that wasn't really the moment for that. She pulled out her game that had a ball attached with a string to a cup, but that kept her busy for only so long. Now she was bored again. Her eyes drifted to Jaken, who was humming an old tune to himself, one that she knew well.

_Jaken used to be a prince?_ She looked at him more closely. Now that she thought about it, his skin was green, his eyes were big and yellow, and his feet were a little bit webbed, kind of like a frog. Come to think of it, she didn't know exactly what species of demon he was, and she knew better than to ask him about it. In everyday life it didn't really matter anyway. Could it be that Jaken was actually a frog?

The illustration in Kagome's book had very clearly shown a girl holding a real frog. But then again, the demons in Kagome's books rarely looked like the real things. She remembered the drawing of the kitsune and thought about Shippo. They looked absolutely _nothing_ alike. The illustration was just probably wrong. Perhaps the frog was kind of a frog-man type creature, and that's why the girl agreed to kiss him. Something had made the girl feel comfortable enough to stay in the vicinity of a talking frog.

It was settled. The book just had to be wrong.

Poor, poor, Jaken. It was all well and good that he wanted to serve Sesshoumaru, but to keep serving him in this weird frog form was very sad. It almost made Rin want to cry. She could only imagine what it must be like to be stuck looking like that. Maybe Jaken was actually really pretty too, like Sesshoumaru.

"Jaken-sama!"

"What now?" Jaken glanced over to her.

Rin dismounted Ah-Un and tiptoed over to him. "Jaken-sama, you must have been so sad to get stuck like that and nobody even tried to fix it"

"Whatever do you mean Ri--Ack!" Jaken pushed Rin away from him, who was still trying to push forward her lips pursed.

"What are you doing, Jaken-sama? Do you want to stay a frog forever?" Rin cried. "You said you used to be a prince, but now I know you're trapped inside of this frog! Please stop, I can help you."

"Eek! Human girl spit! Get it off! Make it stop touching me!" Jaken ran around in a circle trying to fend off the very adamant Rin. "Sesshoumaru-sama! Please help your loyal retainer! I'll die from human saliva poisoning."

Sesshoumaru stopped and hesitated before he turned to observe the three ring circus behind him.

"Come back here!" yelled Rin in the background after Jaken had dodged away underneath Ah-Un. The two-headed dragon didn't seem to notice any of the commotion around him.

"Jaken, what is the matter?" Sesshoumaru asked calmly.

"Rin is trying to kiss meeeee!" The imp continued running and panting.

"And?" Sesshoumaru cocked an eyebrow.

"My Lord, what do you mean by 'and'? I said, she is trying to KISS ME!" Jaken barked as he pushed her away with the staff of two heads.

"Why?" said Sesshoumaru blandly.

"Apparently my Lord, she thinks I'm a cursed frog. I have no idea what on earth has posessed her and--ACK! BLEGH!" Rin had caught up to him and planted a kiss squarely on his cheekbone. He immediately started wiping his face with his hands, his shirt, and anything else he could reach.

She stopped, pondering the demon who was stamping his feet, waving his arms in the air and shaking. He was still very green, and was now very, very angry. Uh-oh.

"I'm sorry Jaken-sama. I couldn't change you back! You're gonna have to stay a frog, then. Maybe I'm not old enough or something. I really just wanted to help you...." Rin began to cry. "I'm sorry I made Jaken angry!"

A corner of Sesshoumaru's lips twitched upward into a hint of smile. He padded over to her. "Well, of course he's not going to change, Rin."

"Why not?" Rin intoned. She sniffed and wiped her eyes on her kimono.

Sesshoumaru looked down at the girl and ran a hand through his long silver hair. "Jaken is not a frog. He is a type of kappa."

Rin blushed. "Oh."

She had always thought that kappas had shells and little water pots on their heads, but then again she had never seen one--only in those books that Kagome had. Next time, she was really going to have to complain to Kagome about how wrong those artists were.

"You do not wish to kiss any more frogs, do you Rin?" implored Sesshoumaru. "Do you need to find a prince that badly?"

"Well..not really." Rin shuffled her feet from side to side.

"Then come, we will go."

"OK!"

Everything back to a relatively normal state, the three continued on their Journey. Rin was still a bit confused about the whole frog-prince thing, and how women waited for princes that weren't really princes but actually knights. Maybe she would ask Kagome later about the time that Inuyasha had been a frog. She seemed to know a lot about this whole situation.

Anyway, being with Sesshoumaru was much better than being with some random prince, now that she thought about it. Lord, prince whatever he was...at least she would never again have to kiss a frog. Or Jaken for that matter.

Rin was quite relieved about that.

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_Hopefully you enjoyed it! As always, please review after reading!_


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